Stanhill cut his eyes away from his work to give Hugh an incredulous look. “After centuries of no one but you for company, how could I not?” He smiled. “Besides, it’ll be nice to have someone else to talk to. Especially of the female persuasion.”
“You have Corette and I bloody doubt it,” he snarled.
Stanhill went back to his work with a grunt. “Woke up in a mood, too, I see.”
“You would have too if you were having a bridezilla thrust upon you.”
At the soft clearing of a throat, he and Stanhill turned. A very pretty woman stood in the kitchen doorway. From the look in her big green eyes, she’d heard him loud and clear. His gut sank with that realization. Whether or not he wanted this, it wasn’t her fault she was here.
She bent her head, and the soft chestnut waves framing her face closed around her pained expression like a curtain. “I didn’t mean to eavesdrop. I was just…I’ll be upstairs.”
She turned and fled before Hugh could stop her.
“Now you’ve mucked it up,” Stanhill said. “She leaves and the dowager is going to snatch that amulet from around your neck quicker than you can blink.”
Hugh glared at him.
Stanhill put down a butter knife and shook his head. “Well?”
“Well what?”
“Go fix it, you dimwitted night crawler.”
Hugh shoved his chair back and went after her. She’d beaten him to her room, and her door was closed. He knocked softly. “Miss Givens?”
After a few seconds, she answered, “Yes?”
“May I have a word with you?”
She opened the door. Indignation danced in her eyes. “You mean a word besides bridezilla?”
He took a deep breath. “My apologies. That was unwarranted.”
“I’d say. You don’t even know me.”
He held his hands up. “You’re absolutely right. Can we start over?”
“Maybe.” She made no move to let him in, leaning against the door frame and crossing her arms under her breasts.
The move created a valley of cleavage that erased his thoughts for a moment. What had she said? Oh, yes. “Maybe?”
“First, tell me why you said I’d been thrust upon you. Didn’t you want me to come?”
He raked a hand through his hair. The woman had guts, he’d give her that. She was also nothing like the women he usually dated. Not blonde. Not reed slim. Not coiffed to within an inch of her life. “It’s not so much I didn’t want you to come as I only found out about you yesterday.”
Confusion clouded her pretty green eyes. “Did you not know what Eternamate was when you signed up for it?”
“I didn’t know Eternamate existed.” He smiled as best he could given the circumstances. “And I didn’t sign up for it. My grandmother arranged all this on my behalf.” Didi might not be fond of being referred to as grandmother outside family settings, but seeing as how she was responsible for Annabelle being here in the first place, all bets were off.
Annabelle’s eyes widened, then she snickered. “You poor thing.” The joy left her face a second later. “I suppose you want me to go, then.”
“No, actually. I don’t.” He wasn’t about to explain that his grandmother had threatened to take the amulet that allowed him to daywalk, either. It was bad enough Annabelle knew he was a vampire. Those amulets were a family secret shared only by his brothers, his grandmother and Alice Bishop.
She made a face. “You don’t have to pretend to be nice to me. If your grandmother set this up, why would you want me to stay?”
“For that very reason. She arranged this and I love her dearly, so for her sake, why not see what happens?” That was convincing, wasn’t it?
Annabelle frowned. Perhaps not as convincing as he thought. “You’re willing to let me stay because of your grandmother?”
He nodded. And hoped he looked sincere. It wasn’t entirely a lie. He very much needed her to stay because of Didi. Preferring the darkness of night was one thing, being eternally confined to it was another.
Annabelle pushed the door open a little wider and walked back into the room. “For her sake, then.”
With his relief, his smile became sincere. “Excellent.”
A small cow walked toward him and meowed. “What on earth is—Stanhill mentioned you brought your cat. He failed to mention the creature is the size of an SUV.”
She gave him the side eye. “His name is Captain. Don’t worry about getting to know him, he doesn’t like men.”
Captain continued his stroll toward Hugh, then wound around his legs like a furry snake. “Yes, I can see how much he loathes me.”